SEARCH FOR IT ON WRITER OF POP

Subscribe to this blog

FOLLOW BY EMAIL

FEATURED POST

MOVIE REVIEW
While not exactly a golden rule, it is known fact that if a movie does well in the box office, chances are good that it will be followed by sequel and more often than not, we’ve come to expect that the sequel won’t measure up to the original. Add a third movie to the mix and you’re just asking for trouble. With animated movies, the expectations are often even lower. (Is anyone really surprised that the Ice Age movies keep getting worse?) But sometimes, as is the case with the Disney/Pixar Toy Story movies, we’re pleasantly surprised. Now you can add How to Train Your Dragon to that short list too.

One thing that DreamWorks Animation has understood about this series is that the story comes first, the hijinks come later. The very first Dragon movie proved that way back in 2010 with a strong story and with each chapter that has come after it, that story just keeps getting better. What started out as a cute kid’s story has become a powerful trilogy. We've seen these chara…

Marvel Studios took a risk in 2008 with a big budget project
called Ironman. At the time, the comic book character was considered a
lesser-known or a second stringer unlike Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four or The
Hulk. It was debatable if audiences outside of the traditional comic book fan
would bother to see such a movie. Well, we know how that story ended. Since
then, Marvel has been spitting out new movie versions of their comic characters
left and right and most have succeeded with the general population.

This weekend, the studio is taking another risk by bringing
a fairly obscure franchise to the big screen: Guardians of the Galaxy. Many
have never even heard of these characters until just recently, except for the
diehard fans. It will be interesting to see how the masses will respond this
time around. I too am unfamiliar with the Guardians,
so I can only judge the movie based on what I saw on the big screen. I have no
idea if the film is faithful to the printed material or not.

Though technically a comic book movie, Guardians has its own look and feel that is unlike any other Marvel
franchise, except for maybe Thor. The humor is ramped up a bit, though not as
campy as you would find in the 1960’s version of Batman and it is not even close to the seriousness of the latest
Superman flick, Man of Steel. And for
being a brand new story for most people, Guardians
is sort of an anti-origin story.

The movie opens with Peter Quill, a little boy who witnesses
his mother’s death due to an illness at a hospital. So distraught by the
incident, he runs out of the hospital and immediately gets abducted by aliens.
The film then fast-forwards about 30 years and Peter is all grown up looking
like Chris Pratt scavenging through rubble while listening to his Sony Walkman
that he had while he was on earth. (How that device held up all these years is
also a mystery.) Like the missing years of Jesus in the Bible, we don’t know
what happened to Peter or how he ended up where he is.

Popular Posts

MOVIES
It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since everything was awesome, at least in the world of Lego as seen in the original Lego Movie. Since then Lego-themed movies have been released, none of which have been as popular, lucrative or received as much praise from critics as the original.

Now the gang is back in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part but everything appears to be less awesome as Bricksburg has become Apocalypseburg and is getting worse when this world is threatened by Lego Duplo invaders from outer space. Still, just like is real life, Legos can always rebuild.

It takes a lot of physical and CGI Legos to create a movie. Here is a breakdown on how that looks:

2: The number of characters Chris Pratt, Stephanie Beatriz and Alison Brie play in the film. (Pratt plays Emmet and Rex Dangervest, Beatriz plays General Mayhem and Sweet Mayhem and Brie plays Unikitty and Ultrakitty)

3: The number of times Will Arnett has voiced the role of Batman in a Lego movie.

TVAmerica’s Got Talent: The Champions brought back 50 of the best acts from the different world versions of the show to compete one more time for the chance to win a really impressive (or tall) trophy, $25,000 cash and pretty incredible bragging rights. The two-hour presentation began with an hour full of filler of past acts, silly bits and interviews with the dozen remaining acts hoping to win.

Soon the 12 was whittled down to five including ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer, sand artist Kseniya Imonova, card magician Shin Lim, singer Cristina Ramos and comedian Preacher Lawson. And during the show’s last five minutes of the show the winner was revealed.